


monumental misunderstandings

by clickingkeyboards



Series: filling in the blanks [2]
Category: High Class Homos (Webcomic)
Genre: Brotherly Love, Canon Trans Character, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-01-16 02:12:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18511804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clickingkeyboards/pseuds/clickingkeyboards
Summary: "After all, people didn't always call me Lucas."Percival is confused. People didn't always call him Lucas? Unwilling to seem naive, he doesn't ask questions about the confession. However, he wishes that he had after he accidentally bursts in on the other knight getting dressed."Lucas, you're a... you're a girl?"Set after part ten.





	1. "People didn't always call me Lucas."

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of an ongoing series where I write in missing moment from the High-Class Homos webcomic. Let me know which moments you would like me to write!

Gay.

It was as if the last piece of a puzzle had been trying to solve for years had finally slotted into place. It made so much more sense now his best friend had spelt it out in front of him. Ironic, since he couldn't spell any words himself. Although he wasn't opposed to the idea of being gay, the idea of having feelings for the prince terrified him. He had feelings - those feelings - for August.

In an odd way, it made sense. Who wouldn't fall for him, the handsome and soft-spoken linguist with a heart fashioned out of gold? His auburn hair shone in the sunlight, a glow that distracted Percival as he sparred with Lucas. A smile that he saved for Percival was visible on his face when he thought nobody saw, dazed with a lazy kind of love. A fond gaze everybody close to August noticed, except the person he directed it towards. His sweeping scarlet cloak and charming smiles could attract suitors of every kind. Suitors also including excitable and bright-eyed commanders, it seemed.

Percy thought back to every moment he and August had shared, desperate to find something more. While attempting to concentrate on sparring, he deciphered what he could. He scrutinised every soft compliment, loud laugh, and playful tease. August managed to make Percy's mind whirl with praise of his improving reading skills.

Percy supposed that he should thank Lucas for triggering the realisation.

“You sure know a lot about this, dude!” Percy complimented with a huff of breath, pushing out his arm to combat Lucas’ strike. While he was definitely more skilled than the older knight, he was awful at multitasking. Fighting and talking was not his forte. “Are you... also gay?”

Saying ‘also’ felt strange. He was setting his sexuality in stone with a single world. At the same time, it felt powerful, as if he was taking something he didn't have control over into his own hands.

An ill-timed swipe from Lucas cut off his internal monologue. Percy blinked in surprise. Lucas could be clumsy but he never timed his strikes so badly.

The blue-haired knight let out an awkward chuckle. "No, I... I like girls."

Percy noted that he had glanced over at Marla, the maid that Sapphia was courting. Huh, Lucas had taken a fancy to Marla? How strange the love lives in the kingdom were! Everything was so intertwined and complicated. How had he not noticed this before?

“Although,” he continued casually, as if he wasn't in the middle of a battle, “In some ways, I can relate to you.”

Percy had almost forgotten that they were still training. For a moment, he stood still with an open stance, hands down at his sides. In one fluid movement, Lucas dropped to the ground and swept Percy’s legs from beneath him.

“Woah!” he blurted as he fell, flailing his arms to catch himself on the cobbles.

He hit the ground hard, his elbows taking most of the impact and transferring the shock to his shoulders. Groaning, he rubbed his head. It seemed to have rattled his brain inside his skull: everything felt strange and offset.

With a chuckle, Lucas offered out a hand to help him up. “After all, people didn’t always call me Lucas.”

Confusion was Percival's predominant emotion upon hearing that sentence. He accepted the hand up with a grateful smile, stumbling to his feet. He wasn't bothered by his own confusion: confusion seemed to be his permanent state of being. Although it wasn't bothering him, it seemed to be bothering Lucas. What he had said seemed to be of penultimate importance to him, if the anxious look on his face was anything to go by.

Percival reasoned that it would click in a few days and then he would feel moronic for not knowing before. To save showing naivety, he shrugged and said, “Okay!”

If he embarrassed himself in front of Lucas, he wouldn’t let himself forget it. Lucas was older than Percy by a couple of years, well-versed in all kinds of culture with a past shrouded in mystery. Percival deeply admired him. He was trying to prove himself to the other knight on a constant basis. He wanted to prove that he was worthy of being the youngest commander in history.

He felt like a child trying to impress his older brother. It was strange in the eyes of the other knights but Percival didn't care in the slightest. Lucas was an admirable knight and a wonderful friend. If there was anybody Percy wouldn’t mind having as a brother, it would be Lucas.


	2. "Lucas, you're a... you're a girl?"

Commander Percival felt drained of all energy and patience. He had been training some of the new knights who had far too much energy and were far too cocky. From the beginning, he could tell that some of them were not going to climb far up the career ladder. On top of his frustration, training made him feel sticky and uncomfortably hot. He wanted nothing more than to wash himself and change into civilian clothing. That taking a moment to think would help him forget about the entitled brats he had been training.

He knocked on the door to the bathroom, hoping that whoever was in there would allow him to borrow a spare tunic. "Is anybody in there?" he questioned in a timid voice.

There was no reply and Percy assumed it was safe to go in. Whistling a cheerful tune that August often sung, he pushed open the door and started. He had interrupted someone.

Taking in the scene, he realised what he was seeing and gasped, covering his eyes out of modesty. For several seconds, he stood a few metres away from the person he had walked in on. The atmosphere was heavy, shrouded in uncomfortable silence.

he peeked through the gap in his fingers to make sure that he had seen what his brain was telling him he saw.

Lucas was standing in his breeches and boots, missing his shirt and his self-assured smile. Instead, painted onto his face was a horrified expression, something that did not suit him. His arms were awkwardly twisted above his head. Percival had caught him as he struggled with something that looked like a bra. And his chest didn't look the least bit like Percy's own. Embarrassed, Percy tugged his eyes back up to look at his face, more confused than ever.

“Lucas!” he blurted in surprise, shattering the silence like a stone thrown through a spider’s web. It seemed redundant to only shout the other boy's name but there wasn't much else for him to say. "Lucas... what?!"

"Get out," Lucas breathed, his eyes wide with terror. He had managed to get off the item of clothing he had been struggling with and was using it to cover his chest. "Perce, get out."

Percy cocked his head, a frown cutting a slash in his brow. He had never been more confused about what was going on in his life. Except in his lessons with August. Lucas was obviously a boy, at least to Percival, and nothing had ever indicated otherwise. He went out for drinks at the tavern, often after one of the other knights had received a promotion. He joked with the knights in a way that the maids (and Percival) found vulgar, and he pursed girls like the other did.

Yet, he had the body of a girl. The two conflicting images in his brain were clamoring for him to acknowledge them. He desperately wanted to believe that Lucas was a boy. But the other image refused to allow Percy to ignore it.

"Lucas, you're a... you're a girl?" he asked, raising his eyebrows in shock.

It was as if those words broken an invisible spell hanging over their heads, floating about in the air of the room.

“Get out!” Lucas roared, taking a step forward so he was almost nose to nose with the other knight. "Out, Percival, out of my sight! If the sight of me scares you so much, go and train with a real boy!”

Percy turned tail and fled the room. He had no idea how long he ran for, he just knew that he wanted to get away from what he had messed up. Eventually, he ended up at the edge of the forest. Unwilling to venture inside, he crumpled up behind a tree. Ducking his face into his knees, he screwed his eyes shut and attempted to figure it out. He wanted to understand.

In the bathroom, Lucas crumpled down against the wall, heels of his hands pressed against his eyes. It has been months, months since somebody called him a girl. He had almost forgotten the horrible feeling that came with that cursed word. Just the thought that it was said by his favourite knight, somebody who he liked and respected and trusted... it made him feel sick to his stomach. Lucas sobbed into his breeches until a retch rose in his throat. He was familiar with being sick from sadness, but he never thought that Percival would be the cause. **  
**


	3. “Lucas, are you okay?”

It was midnight before Percy returned to the lodgings. Marla had escorted him back while tutting at him for being out so late. He had tried to buy a drink at the tavern but the owner had turned him away because he looked too young. Secretly, he was glad. Alcohol was not a pleasant thing. Marla had seen him sulking outside in the street while getting up to get a drink.

She bid him goodbye at the door and closed it behind him. Percy stripped down to his underwear and dressed in his night clothes, making as little noise as he could. He felt sick. At least part of it was because he had never fought with Lucas before and he hated it when they weren’t speaking. The other part was the the entirety of the lodgings building smelled like vomit. Absently, he wondered which knight had been ill, and hoped that it wasn’t Lucas.

With an ease he didn’t usually practice, he climbed the ladder to his bunk and pushed back the covers to get in. He hoped that his thoughts wouldn’t keep him up for too long.

As he tugged his toy closer to his chest to mask his racing heart, he heard a distinct sniffling from below him. “Lucas?” he whispered. “Are you okay?”

“Fuck off, you’re a dick,” the older knight hissed, threatening even through tears. “You can’t judge me because I don’t have one.”

Percy’s eyes were wide. With his blanket wrapped around his head, he said, “No! No, Lucas, that isn’t it at all! I just... I don’t understand it. I was confused; I still am confused.”

“Well, figure it out on your own and don’t call me a fucking girl!”

There was silence for several moments.

“Lucas? I think I understand it now. You were... born as a girl but your... your...” He thumped his pillow in frustration. “August explained it to me the other day but I was sleepy and distracted by counting the panels in the stained glass window so I didn’t take it in properly.”

Lucas snorted at that.

“You have the body of a girl but your brain is the brain of a boy. Because you can’t change your brain so it matches your body, you’re changing your body so it matches your brain.”

No reply.

Percy sighed and drew his arms around himself. “I do want to understand, Lucas. I really do. When you’re... when you’re less angry with me, I’d like to understand.”

Creaking sounded throughout the tiny room and the bunk wobbled beneath him. Percy realised at once: Lucas was climbing the ladder.

Bracketing his forearms in front of his face, Percy steeled himself for a painful blow to the jaw. However, he was pleasantly surprised: something suspiciously like a body thumped into him with force, knocking him back against his pillow. “Percy!” Lucas whispered, sounding absolutely gleeful. Ever cautious, Percy wrapped his arms around the other knight.

“Um… hello.”

“Goodness, you’re a wonderful friend,” Lucas praised.

“I’m sorry for being confused,” he said softly. “I do try to understand you.”

Lucas pulled back from the embrace, sitting cross-legged in front of Percy. His features were vague in the dark yet still distinguishable as grinning and bright. “Nonsense, Perce! You’re  allowed to not understand things.”

“I’m sorry for calling you the wrong thing,” he added. 

Lucas shook his head and took Percival by the hand. “It’s alright, you didn’t mean anything by it.”

“But it’s not alright! I made you cry, Lucas! You can’t say it’s alright.”

Lucas gulped down a sob. “It’s okay, Perce. It’s... okay.” His voice broke with the force of the son that broke from his throat.

Percy gasped. “Oh, Lucas! There’s... you don’t have to worry, Lucas. I promise that you don’t.”

“I don’t... Perce, you don’t understand. It’s difficult, all this nonsense about not fitting inside my own skin. It’s an uphill battle every damn day, and all I’ve been doing recently is tripping and falling flat on my face!”

Percy gripped onto Lucas’ hand tightly. “Shh, Lucas. It’s okay, you’re going to be alright. You can always speak to me about it. I’ll try to understand you, even if I fall short of the mark sometimes.”

Lucas grinned lopsidedly, tears still streaming down red cheeks. “You know, Perce, I think you might just be my best friend...” He relaxed back against the wall with a dopey grin on his face. 

Percy poked Lucas in the face. It seemed that the other boy had fallen asleep. Rolling his eyes, he tugged out the blanket and covered him with it, then tucked the pillow under his head.Grabbing the small, floppy toy he kept squashed down the side of his mattress, he vaulted himself over the side of the bunk and climbed into Lucas’ bed.

“Perce?” Lucas mumbled faintly, just as Percy was startling to get comfortable. 

“Get some sleep, Lucas,” he said, already half asleep. “But, to double-triple clarify, you’re a boy, right?”

“Yes,” Lucas said, chuckling softly. “I am.”


End file.
